For Second Year, Morgan Stanley Named Asia Pacific's Best Investment Bank

For the second year running, two of Asia’s leading financial publications, Finance Asia and The Asset, have named Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MWD) as the region’s Best Investment Bank. Among other top investment banking awards for Asia Pacific ex-Japan, ex- Australia , both magazines also recognized the Firm as 2005’s Best Equity House and Best Financial Institutions House.

“Morgan Stanley has delivered an impressively diverse array of business this year – from mid-cap Chinese IPOs to world record beating listings; it has advised on transformational bank M&A as well as critical deals for India Inc,” FinanceAsia explained on announcing its 2005 awards. “It has built a balanced business around FIG, TMT and general industries, and it has done repeat client business.”

Last year's stand-out transaction, Equity Deal of the Year according to most publications and IFR's Global IPO of 2005, was the Morgan Stanley-advised China Construction Bank US$9.2 billion IPO, the world's largest listing since 2000 and the largest from the region to date. FinanceAsia editors wrote that the deal's “size, valuation and subsequent trading level all go to show what a remarkable feat the bank and its lead managers were able to pull off.”

According to data provided by Thomson Financial, Morgan Stanley also topped 2005’s Asia Pacific (Asia, ex-Japan, ex-Australia) equity league table by deal volume. During the year, the Firm advised on 34 equity and equity-linked transactions with a total league table value of US$9.5 billion, representing a #1 market share of 12.5%.

Commenting on the outlook for 2006, Mike Berchtold, President and Head of Investment Banking for Morgan Stanley in Asia Pacific, said: “The region’s capital markets continue to develop and we expect equity issuance to be up by 20% on 2005’s level driven by continuing activity in China, India and Korea. We expect to see fixed income activity across the credit spectrum, including over US$6 billion of corporate high yield debt. Our M&A pipeline is diverse and broadly based across countries and sectors.”

Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm and a market leader in securities, investment management and credit services. With more than 600 offices in 28 countries, Morgan Stanley connects people, ideas and capital to help clients achieve their financial aspirations.